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Irish Lesson 17

PRONUNCIATION

You know the basics of pronunciation by now. Although you should be able to sound out most new words, we will continue to give you the pronunciation guide for all new words--and most of the old ones, too--for a few more lessons. We will also begin reviews to help you maintain your pronunciation if you have no speakers, records, or tapes available.

We will now begin to take up some of the details of pronunciation and some of the regional variations. First, the word "maith" (mah), good. The "th" at the end of the word means that the vowel sound of (ah) gets cut short, rather than running long as it if were (maaah).

We do the same in English sometimes. For example, when you say "ah" to indicate pleasant surprise, the sound is held for a much longer time than when you say "ah" to indicate disgust or impatience. In the second "ah", you cut the sound off short, as you do for the Irish word "maith". This cutting short of the sound for "th" also occurs inside words, usually at the end of a syllable before a vowel, as in: leathan (LA-huhn), wide; athair (A-hir), father. We will indicate where this happens from now on.

At the start of a word, "th" gets an (h) sound, like English "h". For example: tharla sé(HAHR-luh shay*), it happened.

"Maith" is pronounced (meye) in some parts of Ireland, and you must learn to listen for this. If a speaker says (goh MEYE), you will know that it is the equivalent of the (go MAH) that you have learned. Regional differences exist in Ireland, as in the United States where, for example, the word "rifle" may be pronounced (REYE-fuhl), (RAH-fuhl) or (ROY-fuhl) along the Eastern seaboard alone.

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